In Praise Of : New Order's 'Movement'

While comparing it to Joy Division is inevitable, it often seems like people deride it for sounding "too much" like Joy Division - as if it weren't within New Order's right to do so. I mean, 3/4 of the band co-wrote and played on every recording of each Joy Division song. Ian Curtis was not Joy Division any more than Peter Hook's bass was Joy Division.

Anyway.

I view Movement as a natural progression from Closer, "Atmosphere" and "Love Will Tear Us Apart." I love Hannett's production, though the band wasn't pleased with the final result (to say the least, it wasn't an easy album to make) despite it not sounding terribly different than the Peel session versions of some of these tracks.

I don't know what to say about the songs which hasn't already been said. Movement makes me want to walk after dark under the cold glare of streetlights - a lot of shadows with sudden bursts of blinding brightness.

My other JD weirdness is that I prefer the BBC recordings to any of the others--but I actually know a few others who concur with that one.

UP is a fine production - I just think Movement is the one production you'd play to someone if you wanted to convince them of his greatness.

Funny how Hooky didn't sing any more in New Order. He's superb on Movement. I've just been listening to the Ceremony demo with Steve Morris singing! He was OK too.

Thursday May 5 at The Hiro Ballroom (Maritime Hotel)

Girls & Boys and GBH presents

NEW ORDER (DJ set) featuring Peter Hook and the Official Concert After
Party along with DJs Alex English, Alex Malfunction and
Shawn Christiansen of stellarstarr*

Hosted by Filter Magazine, + 1, and Cornerstone

Limited Tickets $8 on sale starting Wednesday April 27 at www.GBH.tv
or GBH box office(open 12pm-6pm)153 W. 27 St. Ste 1107
bet 6 and 7aves.

$12 at the door

Doors Open 10pm-4am

Hiro Ballroom 363 W. 16 St and 9 Ave

are you talking about Movement? or something else?

Hence this album, without any pomp, any affectedness, made of transparent songs, all built on three chords, or very nearly. The clarity of inspiration and the - apparent - ease of some arrangements of the record will cause - or has caused, as they probably have all bought it, a serious surprise for those who considered Joy Division only as a gloomy gothic band. Starting from Joy Division's intense and
groping lucidity, New Order has reached a plain and appeased clairvoyance. Ian Curtis's terrorized voice, while breaking the organized din of the band, gave to the release the bitter taste of a fall.
Absent and serene, Albrecht's voice, mixed as if from a distance, seems to harmonioulsy and willingly find its place in the thickness of the whole lot.

The unofficial EP that was available at New Rose last fall, already featured the four best songs of "Movement" : "Dreams Never End", "Truth", "Senses" and "I.C.B.". I must confess that it is the first time for me, that the words "hypnotic", "under a spell", or even "oriental" have an entirely positive meaning to describe music. These tracks filled with salient nervures, made of a miraculously pacified tension, condemn the more and more boring and overestimated The Cure to the incurable autistic lodge they belong to. Cure provoke a smug apathy in their audience : they are Madras Radio, the
snake-charmer radio. New Order are million miles away from Cure's whining complacency, in its grey emptiness. Things are limpid, open, clear, cut out, sharp. Joy Division's music was nyctalopic, it could see with a supernatural accuracy in the darkness of inner chaos. New Order freely sails in the full light of day. The dizziness created by "Movement" originates from this extreme precision, from this pure clarity and brightness : guitars with geometrical arpeggios, pour into a naked wilderness, irrigated by a dense and liquid rhythmic basis, where drums clashes burst out, never misplaced, and
furious electronic squeak blasts hiss. Its pictorial equivalent would be Mondrian's geometrical strict and hallucinated compositions.

Everywhere I see people giving this record a chilly reception or even ignoring it. People are put out because it is too simple, not mysterious or enigmatic - or God knows what else - enough. It displeases because it is too restrained. But I would not trade this intense moderation and this cleared emotion for anything in the world, all that mediocrity, all these conceited guys we had to endure for years, with their artistic pretentions. With their permission, they are no Otis Redding - that demands a lot. It demands a lot to be New Order too.

for me, "denial" is the absolute be-all and end-all: my love of post-rock and post-metal has its genesis in the first time i ever heard this track. it takes my breath away every single time.

(xpost)

I assume you mean from the Western Works demo? I'm glad you brought that up actually because this thread made me think of that song "Homage" in the sense that when people say Movement lacks something because it's a "transitional" album, etc. I would say it's "Homage" where they sound rough like they're just getting their bearings rather than on the album itself. It's a good thing they scrapped that song because as much of a fan as I am I've never been able to see the worth in it. I haven't played the Western Works demo in a long time actually because I recall the sound quality being atrocious, but I've pulled it out just now and yes the overall impression is still that they just didn't have their act together yet, it's awful really. Steven's vocals are okay, but only just. He has no problem hitting the notes, but has a pretty high pitched voice compared to the others and (understandbly) lacks confidence.

I like the fact that you've called attention to Hooky's vocals. It's not something I've really given a lot of thought to, actually, but it struck me today what a superb job he really did of it. It's also interesting to revisit the more restrained and consistent approach he takes on the studio version of "Doubts Even Here" in comparison to the live versions I've become accustomed to where he's liable to use a bit more force and volume.

I was very convinced by mark s's argument that Closer is really the first New Order album (versus Movement being a JD hangover). The two albums seem very connected to me, rather than there being some sort of radical break.

Okay so I'm cheating and listening to the Peel Session versions now (that version of "I.C.B." in particular is absolute godhead) but I still say, even after all these years that this album is my favourite of all time. I didn't expect to come to that conclusion so late in the game, really. But here it is again in my life and I just know music never really gets any better than this album for me. Ever. Dare I say even Everything's Gone Green cowers below it?

When I hear this album I just feel like I'm home. That's all I know. It makes me feel like I've come home to something.

Everything's Gone Green has been my favourite song of all time for about 10 years now, but after listening to this album heavily for the past week, (Inspired by the talk of an ILXor djing a Halloween party with Movement and nothing else) Chosen Time could very nearly top it. Since nobody has ever re-edited it and doubled it in length I may have to give it a go myself.

there are some wonderful live performances through 82 that capture the vibe of those early synth experiments like EGG and Chosen Time.

xpost

Do it! I want to hear this. Chosen time has always seemed like an underappreciated gem in their back catalogue (though I know there are people who'll make the same claim for every album track they've got). One of the more successful productions on 'Movement', IMO, with fantastic drums and that incredible outro.

Have just been youtubing looking for some of those wonderful live performances! Also thanks to this thread will be ripping Taras DVD to mp3.

xpost once again

Is 'Chosen Time' the missing link between traditional drums-guitar-bass-synth stuff like 'Procession' and the first experiments with letting a sequencer lead the way, like 'EGG'? Seems so.

it's very fast. i'd say it's nearly 140bpm. high 130s for sure. would make a compelling dnb remix if done in a style similar to black secret technology.

Track down the bootleg of their gig at the Haçienda, 26 June 1982 — VERY fast. Not the best recording I've heard, but the band absolutely tear through the material. 'Denial' is punishing.

I guess I could post the files somewhere, if anyone's interested.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/carnage2/204856356/

This gig!

Oh, people would be interested!

I'm working on it :)

I will work on the re-edit. Might take a while though, don't want to accidentally make my favourite song suck.

I guess I could post the files somewhere, if anyone's interested

FUCK yes.

Chosen time seems to be at 162bpm!

Wow.

Cerysmatic Factory's info page

Seems that there's some confusion about what songs were played on the Haçienda's opening night, but here's the real setlist:

In a Lonely Place
Ultraviolence (power was cut during the gig, resumed after 20 minutes)
Ultraviolence (best performance I've ever heard)
Denial
The Village
We All Stand
Senses
Chosen Time
5-8-6/Temptation (a pretty sweet segue)

Percussion is overpowering and bass levels are way too high, but it's remarkably clear — I'd take something like this over a soundboard recording. Best listened to LOUD.

Can we post direct links to bootlegs here? It's ready.

DO IT!

http://www.sendspace.com/file/d44xo6

192 kbps AAC's from a friend 3-4 years ago. Wish I had the original source.

Millsner, you are an almighty dude. Thank you.

Wow, that is fast!

I just like having other people to gush over the songs with!

LOLing at Bernard singing 1 line falsetto during In A Lonely Place :)

I'm not going to get a chance to listen to this till tomorrow. But I genuinely cannot wait. I might get up early especially.

Haha, punter yelling "brilliant!" in the left channel around 3:40.

It's probably one of the 5 favourite bootlegs in my stash. I'm more than happy to share!

Excellent version of Denial, Steve playing unbelievably fast, synths sounding otherworldly, heavy echo on Bernard's vox

I am all over this if they're mastered properly!

Also thanks to this thread for being, IIRC, my introduction to ILM all of 13 years ago.

"Also, interesting that Hook never got a lead vocal again after "Dreams Never End"."

doesn't he sign Doubts Even Here? Or is that Barney trying to be Ian Curtis?

sing obviously, i haven't had any coffee yet

pretty sure that's Hook

Once I untangled the grammar on the wikipedia page for that song, I confirmed that Hook did indeed sing Doubts Even Here:

This led to a dispute over who should fill Curtis' shoes with the lead vocalist role. All three male members were in contention, but due to Bernard Sumner's voice being significantly different from Curtis', New Order opted for him to take the role, wanting New Order's sound to be different from Joy Division's. Ironically with this new vocalist, in addition to "Doubts Even Here", the first track ("Dreams Never End") on the first album recorded by New Order, Movement, is sung by bassist Peter Hook.

so I bought Movement: The Definitive Edition with some unexpected catsitting money, and it's pretty great. the box and book and everything are very nice, but the real treasures are the two bonus discs, a CD and a DVD. The CD has the Western Works demos and the Cargo demos and some other neat stuff, but the DVD is so great! Four live shows (two in clubs, two in studios) from 1980-1982 showcasing all kinds of possible New Orders before they settled in and the recordings sound really good. Presumably it's mostly stuff that has been out there floating around but it's nice to have it all together... so far liking most the Cargo demos, a sorta un-Hannetted Movement and the Peppermint Lounge show from 1981 with a bonkers version of Temptation I think I've heard before but is delightful. By the 1982 versions they've already pretty much locked it down.

gross title

they wisely did not emboss that on the front of the box or anywhere inside on the artwork, only only the one-sheet stuck to the back (which can be removed)

I want to say clips from some of those live sets show up in the New Order Story doc.

> unexpected catsitting money

what? that's a great title

Some Unexpected Catsitting Money was the working title of Some Great Reward, IIRC.

Anyway, the Cargo demos are so fucking good, let me reiterate. I don't know if it's more the fresh sound of an album I've been listening to for thirty years now, or if it really just works better without the Hannett sheen... Unknown Pleasures for me was certainly drastically improved by his production (vs the Warsaw demos), but I dunno about Movement. They buried the vocals on the original Movement, but I really like them being way forward in the mix on the Cargo demos.

The guitar on the Cargo version of Dreams Never End sounds like some great lost Galaxie 500 track (Hook singing on that track... quite alarming) but his vocals work on Mesh, with the bass on that one there's a nice Gang of Four thing going. And the stripped-down Doubts Even Here has a nice Seventeen Seconds thing going. As I said, it's like a catalog of possible New Orders, before they chose.

Why is "Procession" nowhere to be found in all this remastering and reissuing? Just because it was a 7"? Or have I missed it somehow?

Too bad the 12"s don't seem to be available digitally - no CD or download.

It's on both the recent-ish Movement reissues (2CD deluxe has the original 7" version and the Definitive Edition has six various demo/live versions) and on the re-remastered Singles compilation.

You can download the singles here - in the uk anyway

https://www.qobuz.com/gb-en/interpreter/new-order/download-streaming-albums?s=rdc#results

I think they are on iTunes too